[greenrobin]

Okay, so I just accepted placement of a group of 4 little ones. They're very close in age--4, 2, 1, and 2 mos! The 1 yr old has a partially repaired cleft palate. His surgery to close the fissure in the roof of his mouth is in January. He appears to be fine, but he does snork a bunch!

Does anyone here have any advice to offer on feeding and speech issues? Right now, he's very small--maybe 15 lbs, crawls and cruises, refuses to eat and cries a great deal.

I'm open to suggestions!

[Withay]

I've got a 5 month old with an extreme bi-lateral cleft lip and palate. Feeding can be tricky with these little ones as so much seems to come out their nose.

My little one snorks too. Loudly!!!!

A speech pathologist would be able to help you with his speech issues. Is your little guy being seen by a feeding clinic? Speech clinic? If not, I would recommend getting hooked up with them right away. They can help immensely.

[greenrobin]

Thanks so much. My Little E has a single cleft that is partially repaired. According to the Mermaid, big sis, mom mostly gave him bottles because the food got stuck in his fissure and made it bleed. The end result is a 1 yr old who weighs less than 20 lbs. After much trial and error, he's eating smushed up table food. He's a much happier baby. Today was the first day I saw anything come out of his nose--milk, and he thought it was funny. Boys. Go figure.

First visit is tomorrow and I'll see his CPS cw. I'll ask about a feeding clinic. We're on tap for early childhood intervention, but the 14 day hearing hasn't happened yet and everything is apparently in limbo.

Again, thanks for the ideas.

[Withay]

Hi Green - Just wanted to see if you still have this sib group. How did his surgery go?

My 5 mo old fs with the bilateral cleft is now 14 months old. He had his first palate repair done earlier this year. Just today I found that he has a wooden match head size hole in his new palate, right along the front to back suture line. I will be calling the surgeon tomorrow.

He is now just over 20 pounds. Lots of feeding with high calorie formula using a special bottle that he does not have to suck from. He is still on the bottle because, unfortunately, he is unable to get anything out of a sippy cup. His therapist is bringing an open cup (has a low side that goes up and a high side that goes down so you can see if he is getting anything).